A couple of days beforehand, as the new player in town, Pizza Capers, put the finishing touches on its Peel St store, two Domino’s Pizza employees stood at the front of the store and waved “$7 special” wobble boards.

A brief visit by the boys in blue put an end to the guerrilla marketing ploy but left new Pizza Capers franchisee Trent Green under no illusions as to the challenge ahead.

“I think the others are worried, because they’re madly trying to adapt to a changing market,” Mr Green said. “The world is changing – greasy, fast-food options are on the way out.

“We focus on quality and freshness. You might pay a bit extra than the other chain stores, but you get what you pay for.”

Pizza Capers, which opened in Tamworth on Monday, proudly calls itself Australia’s first gourmet pizza chain store.

It doesn’t sell pizzas for one, it sells “artisan handcrafted personal pizzas”.

Traditional toppings take a back seat to toppings such as “pork belly, scallops and chorizo” or “exotic potato and bacon”.

One of the pizzeria’s gelato flavours is simply called “The Flavour So Crazy it Doesn’t Even Have a Name”.

And while they take pizza very seriously, they don’t take much else seriously.

Their opening hours for lunch are 11.59am to 2.59pm, and the napkin holders read: “Save the environment, use your sleeve”. Mr Green, who helped launch Brumbies in Tamworth 13 years ago, said he had done extensive market research before choosing the city as the location for his new store. He said the business would create up to 30 new jobs for Tamworth.